wine on the keyboard

April 2008

In a Reflective Mood

by Kay~Kacey on 4/30/2008

Do you ever get in a reflective mood?
glass ball reflecting on table

Ever wonder what would have happened if you made different decisions in your life? Like what you studied in school? What house you decided to buy? What person you decided to marry?

reflections in revo sunglasses

You don’t get do-overs in life, of course, but sometimes you do make better decisions the second time around. Like me marrying SuperGuy. :love:

When in I get in these reflective moods I often wonder what I would have changed in my life. But then I realize that all the choices that I made in my life led me to where I am today, and the person I am today. There are things I wish I had done in my life though. Three off the top of my head:

3 Things I wish I had done/had happened differently

1) taken photography in college (no surprise there)
2) moved out of the city before becoming so entrenched here
3) had a daughter (like that was out of my control)

Not that any of these are out of my reach now. Well, I can’t move right now because we have too many responsibilities here, but eventually we can move. Can’t have a daughter now, that ship has sailed. Who knows though, the boys will marry. Maybe one of their wives will seem like a daughter to me. And, of course, I can still take a photography course.

flowers in reflection ball Though I’m not really sad about any of the things that didn’t turn out exactly how I expected in my life. It led me to where I am now. I’m a very happy person now. I wonder if women just seem to know more what they want and go after it at this stage of life? I’ve met more women in their mid 40’s through their 50’s and into their 60’s who seem to be much happier than they were at any other stage of life. I wonder why that is? I know I care less now about what other people think about my decisions. I have a bit more time to pursue the things that interest me. It’s a really good stage of life to be in right now. (knock on wood).

How about you? When you reflect back on your life, what do you wish you had done differently? Or do you? Are you glad you made the choices you did? Anything you’d like a do-over on?

Give it Your Best Shot

by Kay~Kacey on 4/29/2008

Yes, it’s that time again. Time for the Photo of the Month!

dogwood after the rain

Yes, it’s time to pick out your favorite photo for April and let me know. Use my contact form to send me the link to your photo or blog post that contains the photo. Just like last month, I’ll do no editing to your photos, except if I have to size it down to fit on the blog post.

Bonus points if you title your photo!!

You have until midnight, April 30th (CST) to send me a link to your photos. I’ll get the photo of the month post up within the first few days of May. If you’re new to the blog, here’s a link to last month’s Photo of the Month contest. The competition was fierce. I heard people were bribing the judges. People texted in their votes. They called in to 1-800-pho-toss to register their votes. (okay, okay, maybe not QUITE that big a deal…but there WAS a poll!)

dogwood flowers

BUT WAIT! There’s more! In other big news…

Apple came out with all new computers on Monday. Yes, two days after I bought my iMac. :wallbash: The same amount I paid TWO DAYS AGO, now gets you a faster processor and twice the memory. So what does any ticked off consumer do? She marches down to the Apple store. So I could either return my iMac (and the two days I spent setting it up were wasted…and I’d have to set up the new computer…and, you know, two MORE days of setup) or…they’d credit me back for $215. So, I did what any sane photography nut would do. I took the cash back and put it into my new macro lens fund :mrgreen:

Mama’s Got a Brand New…

by Kay~Kacey on 4/28/2008

Mama’s got a brand new…toy

new imac

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love my macbook. But it has a 13 inch screen and no separate graphics card and it was just puffing along trying to keep up with photoshop. Photoshop makes the laptop run so hot it burns my legs. Not to mention, depending on how you tilt the screen your pictures look lighter or darker. Very hard to figure out how to edit them for the web. So I finally decided it was time to grow up and buy a Mac desktop. I got this beautiful iMac. 20″. Isn’t she pretty?

imac and second monitor

Then I hooked an old monitor up to it. See? Dual monitors. :typing: I’m in serious love here. Well, the old monitor’s colors are kind of off, but at least I can use it for extra space. Especially great for browsing through pictures in Bridge. Or keeping my email open while I’m working. My bad. :mad2:

I feel like….such a grown up! :mrgreen:

I had to remind SuperGuy that he always says it pays to have the right tool for the job. (in which he justifies an ever growing collection of power tools…). Anyway, he didn’t argue with me. It pays to have the discussion in with him while standing in the garage surrounded by all his woodworking equipment. 😉

So my MacBook will travel with me. I’ll use it for my writing. Checking email. But I’m all about the power in this new iMac baby! I spent the weekend transfering files and figuring out Leopard (my macbook is Tiger). Weird how Apple chooses cats for names of their operating system.

OH! And now I have to name her… Haven’t picked a name out yet. The Geeky One named the PC he built before college, Betsy. I made him a I Love Betsy tshirt that he still wears all the time. His old laptop (before he became a Mac convert) was a Toshiba. So he named her Sheeba. I usually called my macbook, Mackie. But now, help me name this lovely, sleek iMac! Do you name your computers? Got any name suggestions for my beauty?