Alice's Adventures Underground

Purple Haze

Posted on 11/28/2009 06:50:00 AM - by NG

When The Dormouse came home from her formal tea party the other day, she made out with a pantload of party favors: a cloth napkin, a teacup and saucer, several glow-in-the-dark bracelets, enough candy to choke a horse, enough glitter to get us through the next three holidays (unfortunately this all came home in her hair), and a purple feather boa.

The feather boa seemed like a great idea until we left the house for the first time.

When we got back and walked through the front door, it looked like a purple chicken had been butchered in our living room.

And dragged downstairs.

Where the culprits were having their way with it's corpse.

I kinda thought it was hilarious, but some of us weren't so amused.

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A Wet Thanksgiving

Posted on 11/27/2009 05:41:00 AM - by NG

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Watching

Posted on 11/26/2009 01:38:00 PM - by NG

Enjoying the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade together.

Sometimes I wish I had a sister.

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Thanks for Stuffing Day

Posted on 11/26/2009 01:30:00 PM - by NG

This Thanksgiving, my coup d'état will be if this stuffing, made entirely from random ingredients I found in my pantry and nothing purchased from a grocery store within the last six weeks, tastes as good as it looks here before I put it in the oven. Only time will tell.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Elegance

Posted on 11/25/2009 11:57:00 AM - by NG

The Dormouse was invited to a "formal tea party" at a friend's house a couple of weeks ago. They were to wear their very best dress and come learn what how a well-mannered young lady should act when invited to a formal event such as this auspicious occasion. There were hor d'oeuvres, a four course meal, formal place settings, dancing, crafts, a make-up center and a course of how to use your manners at the table for each girl. It was quite the event. I was talking to the girl's mother afterward and I mentioned what a cute idea this all was for a birthday party, when the mom said, "Oh this isn't her birthday. Her birthday isn't for another three weeks. I guess we'll have to do this all over again when that happens."

Some people are just better than I will ever be.

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Grrr

Posted on 11/24/2009 11:04:00 AM - by NG

One of the many photos I took while in San Diego last week. The story behind the photo though is that I had a hundred and three degree fever on the day I took this and had to reschedule my plane trip back because I was following the airlines' recommendations that when you have a fever, you shouldn't sit on an enclosed plane breathing recirculated air with over two hundred other healthy people. The airline was only too happy to let me miss my scheduled flight and avoid infecting a large cross section of the population with swine flu... and only too happy to charge me for the privilege of doing so.

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A Bear for All Seasons

Posted on 11/23/2009 02:12:00 PM - by NG

He's an item that was in our silent auction last week. Once we dressed him up and set him on the table, he just kept staring at me, begging me to take his picture.

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Wordy

Posted on 11/22/2009 05:05:00 AM - by NG

This guitar, signed by thirty some-odd Country artists, was donated to my organization and we have spent at least three years trying to figure out how best to use it. In the meantime, it's been in my office and we have been cohabiting. I've developed quite a kinship with it, even referring to it as "my guitar" much of the time. So when we finally sold it at a charity event this month and the very excited person who won it walked away hugging it, I cried a silent tear of remorse. Goodbye my love. Enjoy your new home. She'll never treat you as well as I did.

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Red Leaves

Posted on 11/21/2009 04:41:00 AM - by NG

I am in love with red leaves. Betcha couldn't tell.

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Finding a Way

Posted on 11/20/2009 04:22:00 AM - by NG

"No, I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way."

- Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

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Wishing Flower

Posted on 11/19/2009 06:57:00 AM - by NG

Since I read this photoshop tutorial on using textures several months ago. I've tried it on a couple dozen photos. I think I've got the "how" part down pat. I'm just not so sure about the end result. Every time I do it to one of my photos, it comes out looking like "What's that weird stuff doing there marring an otherwise okay photo?" I guess part of the skill in applying textures to a photograph lies in the judgment to choose what photograph and what texture.

So instead, I'm using the exact same subject from the tutorial: a dandelion about to go to seed from our front yard.

When I first read the tutorial, I noticed she called them "wishing flowers." I'd never heard that term before and thought it was lovely. As kids we did blow on them and wish - the number of seeds left after blowing was supposed to represent how many years it would take before your wish came true. But we just opted for the less poetic name: "dandelions." Being fairly unimaginative, I still call them that, but interestingly, I started to notice that The Dormouse also calls these "wishing flowers." Must be something she picked up at school because I'm pretty sure The KoH calls them "those blasted things that spread weeds around."

Anyway, here's my straight out of the camera photo:

Here's the same photo with some sharpening and a color boost.

Now here it is with the texture applied. I think I left out a step and bumped up the hue/saturation levels at the same time. Hence the bluer blue.

And here's that photo with a color applied over top. I went with an odd kind of color choice... one that a friend would refer to as "stool yellow."

So what do you think? The photo with the textures and colors? Or just the straight out of the camera shot? I'm still on the fence. Maybe it's just not my style.

This one is much cuter.

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Dried Up Berries

Posted on 11/18/2009 04:47:00 AM - by NG

Needing a bokeh intervention.

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Knotty Tree

Posted on 11/17/2009 04:45:00 AM - by NG

As opposed to "naughty tree," which is an entirely different thing.

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The List

Posted on 11/16/2009 08:20:00 AM - by NG

Each year for work, my office plans and hosts an annual convention. It's gigantic, not when you consider the size of the attendee list, but when you take into account that we use very few paid workers, there are only seven full time people working in the office, and we each have committee chairs, presentations, and politicking business as part of our everyday jobs to accomplish while we are there - which is a very full workload until itself, not to mention the stuff we have to do to keep the conference running.

To deal with the pressure, we use humor - because apparently someone decided it was not appropriate to lie on the floor kicking and screaming in front of the registration desk. Each year there is a list of phrases and events that will go down in infamy and be told and retold. This year, we started the list even before we traveled to the conference location. Not all of these are my direct experiences; some of my colleagues contributed to this list. I will, however, withhold the names to protect the innocent.

You know it's conference time when...

You've awakened at 3:00 am every day for a week, but you still haven't seen a sunrise.
You pack your two year old's baby toothbrush instead of an adult one and have been using it for four days. But you only realize this after the fourth day.
You look through the program to see if they have mislabled your credentials because so many barely-more-than-strangers have come to you for marital and psychological advice.
You are so brain dead that the most witty and cerebral thing you can add to a conversation is "That's da bomb.com" ...yet your colleagues are so similarly affected that they think it's hilarious.
You walk around with a $20,000.00 check in your pocket all day because you're afraid if you put it "somewhere safe," you'll forget where that "somewhere safe" is.
You subsist on free granola bars and hotel mints because you spent all your per diem on clothes before you got here.
You come into your hotel room to find your freshly made bed with a letter bearing your name on the front. It turns out to be from the transportation manager explaining your departure plans and ride to the airport, but before you open it, all you can think of is "CRAP. WHAT AM I IN TROUBLE FOR NOW?"
You drop two Alka-Seltzer in a glass, promptly forget that fact and then think you're hearing things because you can't figure out where that bubbling noise is coming from.
You travel a bit too much & never put away your quart ziplock bag of airplane/travel compliant liquids or your roller bag suitcase from the trip you made last month.
You never put away your ziploc thingies from last year's conference travel bag.
You not only put your undies on wrong but you put on two different colored socks.
You would rather drink the margarita fixins prepared for the silent auction basket rather than actually deliver the basket to the donation location.
When you hear the accompanist for the soloist at the opening night concert has to cancel, you suggest kitchen band accompaniment instead.
You miss your husband and children, sure, but what you're really longing to see again is a televsion channel that doesn't have constant Roseann reruns on it.
You consider writing a book of conference tips and tip #1 is: to avoid embarrassment at a professional conference, when you register yourself on-line, don't put "studmuffin" in the nickname or first name as you would like it to appear on your name badge field.
Tip #2: when trying to motivate volunteers, avoid phrases like, "If you're just standing around, you can leave." Try instead what you really mean, which is, "If you've completed all the tasks I assigned you, I don't have anything more for you to do. So you can go and enjoy some of the conference now. Thank you for your willingness to help." (at least I hope that was the intended message)
In a discussion about technology and the profession, when your colleage asks, "Does anyone have a Wii?" you think she said, "Does anyone have any weed?" and you aren't the least bit surprised or concerned.

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Five Leaves

Posted on 11/16/2009 04:43:00 AM - by NG

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Old Timey Station

Posted on 11/15/2009 04:08:00 AM - by NG

When we hit the pumpkin patch a few days ago, we called up some friends who lived close and asked if they wanted to join us. And because they choose to humor the people who can never make plans ahead of time or give anyone notice, they met up with us en route. (Personally, I think it was because they thought that we just might show up on their doorstep and wanted us to stay the heck away from their house.) We stopped by the side of the road so they could catch up with us and follow us to the not-so-easy-to-find farm. I looked out of the car window and felt like I could have walked across the street and into a movie scene set in the early 1900s.