Photos from Jeanne and Barry's
Memorial Day party.
Most were taken with zoom
while people were unaware.


Billy, Cory, Jeremiah, Lee, Matt, Ryan . . .

Roberta . . .

Dominique and Lee . . .

Stavros and Erick signing Ashley's birthday card
(using Melanie's back as a desk) . ..

Ryan . . .

Brandt and Jeanne . . .

Janet . . .

Nancy . . .

Karen . . .

Cutting up a green pepper . . .

for Corn-Bean Salad

to take to Jeanne and Barry's Memorial Day Party.

Corn and Black Bean Salad [enough for a Pitch-In]

  [modified recipe from Angie Ayala, LaFontaine, Indiana,

   SCI REMC news magazine, circa 1995]

Combine:

2    cans (12 oz)  whole kernel corn, drained

2    cans (15 oz)  black beans, drained and rinsed

1                       red bell pepper, chopped

1                       green bell pepper, chopped

1    cup              sweet onions, chopped

2    cloves          garlic, minced or ¼ tea. minced garlic

2    medium         tomatoes, chopped

Make the dressing:

¾   cup              Italian dressing [Kraft House Italian]

¾   teaspoon       hot pepper sauce

                         [if Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, use 1 T.]

½   teaspoon       chili powder

1    tablespoon     lemon juice

1    tablespoon     fresh cilantro, chopped [or 2 tea. dried]

Pour the dressing over the corn/bean mixture.

Stir.  Refrigerate.

I spent my afternoon

learning some basic photo restoration.
(Adobe PhotoShop Elements 7.0)

Here are the results.

My maternal grandfather and grandmother,

Merle and Edna, on their wedding day,

November 24, 1916.

Discolored sepia-tone photo - before and after:

My sister, Pam, and me.

This is probably the first day of school in 1960.

Faded black and white, before and after:

My sister, jan, as an infant.

Original photo had the bumpy texture

so popular for photos in the 1950s & 1960s.

There is an obvious overall pattern in the scanned photo,

before and after:

My sister, jan, 1977.

Photo with color shift from aging, before and after:

Camping, cookout, and campfire at the Big Barn

yesterday evening . . .

Holly, Marcie, and JP from Atlanta . . .

jan's hydrangea . . .

Food for thought from "The Dive from Clausen's Pier" by Ann Packer:

The evening stretched ahead of me, pointless and unending.

We were alone - alone together and also alone within ourselves, each of the three of us.

It makes you the kind of person you are.

People have this idea that what they do changes who they are.

Meaning you do what you do. Not without consequences for other people, of course, sometimes very grave ones.  But it's not very helpful to regard your choices as a series of right or wrong moves.  They don't define you as much as you define them.

You are already made.

Are you lonely now?

She looked over at me, my mother in her burgundy linen work dress, glasses hanging from a cord around her neck.  She shook her head.

Lonely is a funny thing, she said slowly.  It's almost like another person. After a while, it'll keep you company if you'll let it.

Late yesterday evening,

Anne was watching the movie "Shop Girl".

The camera was doing a slow pan around

the main character's room.

Anne paused the DVD and took a screen shot of this . . .

See the aqua vase?

From a shelf in Anne's room . . .

This vase was given to Anne by my mom.

My dad gave my mom this vase when they were engaged.

(They were married in 1949.)

Pretty cool to see one in a movie.

Today is a reminder to copy your photos . . .

   from your camera to your computer . . .

   from your computer to your (multiple) backup locations.

Do this NOW. 

• Be RUTHLESS and weed out bad photos (you know which ones they are)
• Remove duplicates or almost-duplicates

• REGULARLY transfer camera photos to computer
• REGULARLY backup computer photos to external media
• REGULARLY backup computer photos to offsite location.  This will be done automatically and continually if you choose an online option like these:
• Carbonite – www.carbonite.com about $55/year
• Mozy http://mozy.com/ about $5/month

If you decide to use Carbonite, please email me.  I can send you a link which will give me a free month for recommending you - and I think you get an extra month, too.  (Thanks)

Two grandbabies:

a drooling Anya smiling at her daddy . . .

The first filling of Ian's pool . . .

Today was Life Pointe's church picnic.

Zandra spontaneously gave me this bag

when I admired it . . .

It is sooooo me.

Thank you.

Food for thought from "A Flickering Light" by Jane Kirkpatrick:

This experience [playing the piano] was somewhat like faith, she decided:  if you tried to think about it too much you'd stumble, but if you just trusted and kept going, there'd always be the next note to come.

Vince was given two boxes of organic strawberries today . . .

John took this photo of Lilac Bell Caps . . .

near the little barn.

Thursday is my day off work this week.

Started the day with a visit with Aunt Kay.

She looks great and is in great spirits . . .

Anne left to go bowling with some I.U. friends.

I went to Benjamin's . . .

and met Markita for lunch and

then we shopped and walked around town . . . 

until my appointment for my annual eye checkup.

( All is still fine; no changes )

The Sarah Bernhardt peonies are starting to open . . .

And here's a little sunflower . . .

Ian out riding his 4-wheeler in the cool weather . . .

Vince is building again . . .

Rain, rain, rain.

Pretty on the hostas . . .

but, it does drag down the peonies . . .

Vince took his little camper out this weekend.

This is from his cell phone . . .

And, two photos of Anya with cousins (also from cell phone).

With Phoebe . . .

With Thomas . . .

Internet s-l-o-w

so only one photo.

Vince has moved the caboose from the big barn

back to the meadow behind the little barn.

This will be it's permanent home.

Ready for some landscaping and steps . . .

More flower photos; it's that time of year.

Single white peony after a rain . . .

Pink iris shared from Rosalynn's Singleton house . . .

Ice Cream Sundae peony . . .

Oh, no . . .

And some more with deliberate over-exposure:

Clematis (Mother's Day gift from

John and Theresa a couple of years ago) . . .

English iris . . .

Peony . . .