POTD Day 29 Sticky

This cutie is a cupcake from my little cousin's second birthday party. I think they are supposed to be owls...they were super cute and super sticky!!

Last year for his first birthday, they had cute cookie desserts that had faces on them too. And I imagine they were just as sticky!

I took this pic with my Fuji Finepix f50 with the flash and macro on. i really don't like using the flash when I don't have to but the party location was dark so I had no choice. I edited this picture in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Last Year on In My Words...Birthday Madness

POTD Day 28 Nostalgia

Grandma is the back right

This is a cool picture our family has of my maternal grandmother and her three sisters.

I scanned it in a few years ago so everyone could have a copy of it. I love this picture...they look like movie stars in their 40's style. They are all so beautiful.

Seems like we don't do protraits like this anymore...family pictures were so common before, but now it seems like you don't see them as often.

My grandmother's sisters (the ones that are still alive) all live in another state so she doesn't get to see them as much as I am sure she would like to. She has never flown and I don't think she could handle being in a car for the amount of time it would take to make a visit happen so I don't know if she will get to see them again. I guess that is one of the reasons pictures are important to us...the help us to hold on to memories.

I didn't take this image but I did edit it in GIMP to clean up the scan and then added the fuzzy border.
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Six Years Ago on In My Words...Thankful Thursday (one of my paternal grandmother's is in this post)

POTD Day 27 Something I Made

Kai Jiaow with steamed jasmine rice

This is one of my favorite Thai dishes to make...and it is super easy and so yummy!

The only thing missing from it is this awesome sauce that my friend Jai turned me on to, but it is no longer available. Everytime I go to my favorite Thai grocery, I ask the owner if he has seen any of this delectable sauce and he said that he thinks they stopped making it...bummer!!

I need to put a picture of the sauce on my phone so I can have it when I go next time so I can make sure he can knows for sure which one. I have a second sauce I am always looking for that I forgot to bring a picture of last time and I need to get that one on my phone too...LOL. The things we do when we can't read the words on the label.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash and no macro. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added a fuzzy border.
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Seven Years Ago on In My Words...Sunday Treats

POTD Day 26 I Am Here

Of course I can't show my face or where I actually am, but I am at an extended stay for the night and limited to the webcam on my Chromebook...LOL.

Fun and exciting stuff. Was able to try this really yummy seafood restaurant and it was amazing.

Luckily didn't run into any crazy road rage people during the drive, and I listened to an audio book in one direction and the BBC World Service over the Internet Radio on my phone in the other. Overall, a very productive visit.

I took this picture with the webcam on my Samsung Chrome book, and did no editing.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Sparsely Living

POTD Day 25 Soft

These are flowers on one of the Phlox plants we have in the front yard. I thought they were so cute and the buds before they open look fuzzy and soft.

It took me a couple of Springs to figure out what this plant was since there were no markers and it was already here when we bought the house. The other day, I was at a garden store and they had a couple different types there so I took a few of the labels so I could bring them home and compare them to ours and it looks like we have Purple Beauty in our bed. The colors on the plants are bit different but I think that might be due to one being in much more shade than the other.

I took this picture in the afternoon with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash and macro enabled. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Eight Years Ago on In My Words...Plants Are Here

POTD Day 24 One Of A Kind

I love when I find a daisy all by itself in a field of green....they are just so cute and friendly.

When I was a kid, we lived across the street from a big cemetery. Daisies would grow all over in the grass, and I would make these daisy chains as necklaces or for head wreaths...I remember when I first learned how to make them and was so excited, like I had discovered something new.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 in the afternoon sun with no flash, macro enabled. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light, and to add the fuzzy border.
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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Week 42 MCP Project 52

POTD Day 23 I'm Loving

This is a piece of orgonite that my cousin made for me a few weeks ago. I put it in the window in our living room near most of the electronic equipment in the room.

I love the color green too, so it is really perfect.

My cousin started making these healing objects for herself and for others recently. You can read more about orgonite on her website at this location.
She recently got some really terrific news from her latest bone scan and I have to believe that items like this and all the other positive energy sources in her life were responsible to helping her body to heal.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash in the morning sun. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Six Years Ago on In My Words...AWWA Donation Site

Dances With Wolves And More

Perhaps I am a crazy person, but there are some terrific movies out there, that I just can't watch again. I love them, and perhaps even own them, but have the hardest time watching them again...mostly because I know what is going to happen in them.

Dances With Wolves...just can't stand to watch the whole wolf scene. Animal cruelty is just too hard to watch.

Last Of The Mohicans...this is great but just the overall end of the movie is a bummer and I really have to be in the right frame of mind to do it.

Saving Private Ryan...this one is just such a heartbreaker.

Black Swan...I felt stressed out and anxious through this entire one, even though I liked the movie, I couldn't watch it again.

Gangs of New York...great movie but just so awful at the same time.

Update: A Simple Plan...just a complete downer, even though it is a great movie.

Casino...just because of the violence and the knee drilling...ewww!

Reservior Dogs...just so harsh and the policeman scenes...

Boys Don't Cry...just another complete downer

Full Metal Jacket...kid goes crazy and commits suicide and then war scenes

Slingblade...because I love the main character and it sucks how it ends...

This, of course, is only a small segment of those great films that are hard to watch (for instance there are several war movies that I could list). And who knows, maybe that they are hard to watch is what, at times, makes them great films. I am sure I will be watching most of them again at some point in the future but when I am scrolling through the movie channels on cable, and one of these is available, I tend to skip over it for something less stressful, cruel, or sad...
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Eight Years Ago on In My Words...Locked Out (one of my funnier moments)

POTD Day 22 Morning

This is what my day involved...lots of rocks...LOL. I figured out the night before that we needed to get some rocks to fix a spot in the back and reinforce a spot in front, so after running another errand, I headed to the rock store.

This is 750 lbs of rock and 550 lbs of it had to be taken from the truck in the driveway up hill into our backyard...it was a very good workout.

The full post on the fix is located here if you want to check out the before, during and after pics.

I took this pic with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light, and then added the fuzzy border.
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Eight Years Ago on In My Words...Project Progress

POTD Day 21 Full

So I have been on this quest recently to try to find a new body lotion that I like that uses less chemicals. My doctor told me to try to stick to "creams" over "lotions" because they have less alcohol in them, which can be drying. I have been a Jergen's Original user forever.

My issue is that I like a lotion or cream to absorb in so that when I start sweating, I don't feel slippery but at the same time, I don't get ashy skin from it being dry. A few weeks back, I took the doctors advice and bought two different "creams" to try. One from Aveeno, and one from Eucerin. Both of them were okay, but because they were fragrance free, they both smelled like oil to me, which is not really a good thing. I don't want to smell like mineral oil which is one of the main ingredient in them. I liked the Aveeno better, I could put it on once a day and it would last 24 hours, but it didn't absorb that well.

So the other day when I was at Target, I decided to give the lotion aisle another look. I found this lotion (it isn't a cream) in the natural section of the aisle and I liked the idea of raw Shea Butter and it has a great smell with things that are good for you. I have been using it for 3 days now. It is super thick so a little goes a long way, but it seems to work well, absorbs well, and the smell lingers, which I like.

Well see how it goes after the bottle is no longer full...(see I did get the word in there...LOL) and making sure it doesn't turn on me. Some fragrances on my skin will turn, this is why I normally put perfumes on my clothes unless they are essential oils.

I took this picture in our living room, with my Fuji Finepix f50, and no flash but with macro turned on. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and to add the fuzzy border.
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Six Years Ago on In My Words...Stinky Lotion

POTD Day 20 Letter

One of our cousins is in basic training for the local Nat Guard right now.

He had a hip fracture during the beginning of training so after being home for the holidays, he went back to recover and do physical therapy. He is in the Fitness Training Unit until he heals and then he will go back to regular training.

We have been writing back and forth since he has been there since I know being cut off from family and technology is hard and letters and packages can make all the difference in the world. I have sent him one box with some puzzle books and writing supplies, but that was before the holidays.

Right now, I just try to keep the back and forth on the letters going. I got this letter a few days ago and I sent off a postcard today and will get a letter off in a day or so. I am a huge fan of snail mail so it is a lot of fun to have someone to write to.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash, but macro turned on. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color and light, and to smudge out info for privacy reasons. I then added the fuzzy border.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...The Negative Of Facebook

POTD Day 19 Cropped

I was going to search for a picture that I had cropped well to make it into a better picture but then I remember this yummy "crop" I got at the Grower's Market. I had never had pea sprouts before and we were given a sample to try and they were really good, so I bought a bag of them.

I have used them so far in scrambled eggs and salads, and really like the flavor. If I made sandwiches at home, I am sure they would be great on those as well since I get alfalfa sprouts on my sandwiches all the time instead of lettuce.

I took this picture in our dining room with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash but macro turned on. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light, and then to add the fuzzy border.
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Six Years Ago on In My Words...Flowers

POTD Day 18 Five Years Ago

This picture is of my friend's foot in tabi socks and geta sandals with her kimono at my first traditional Japanese tea ceremony.

I joined Okinawa International Women's Club (OIWC) the fall of 2008 and in March our culture group had a tea ceremony. One of our members and her mother were tea ceremony senseis and they had a tea ceremony facility connected to their home. When we did this same ceremony the following year, I had all my kimono parts and was actually able to dress in kimono for the event and it was such an honor.

I really took advantage of our time in Japan during this second opportunity we had to live there and tried to submerge myself in the culture whenever I could. OIWC was a huge part of that. I made life long friends in that group and will forever be thankful for the adventures, experiences and friends.

I took this pic in the morning with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited it in GIMP for color, light and to add the fuzzy border.
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Five Years Ago on In My Words...Kimono Adventure, this has pics of my kimono parts and then some images of me in it at one of our luncheons.

POTD Day 17 Today's Weather

Our weather has been pretty wonky the last few weeks. March, I think is always like that but we always forget. So we have had sun and warm days, then frosty mornings, then windy evenings, and then clouds with some rain...you never know from day to day so you have to sort of just go with the flow when it comes to the To Do list.

This morning we woke up to clouds and rain even though we really weren't supposed to get rain, just clouds. I am not complaining because we really need the rain, but it made it so that instead of yardwork, laundry ended up on the docket.

This pic is from near our house looking out over the hills nearby. You can see that the sun is shining on the bluff but behind it are some dark rainy looking clouds. The sun did come out to stay later in the day and that was nice, but we never did warm up much.

I took this pic in the morning with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and added the fuzzy border.
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Eight Years Ago on In My Words...Cr@p, Cr@p, Cr@p

POTD Day 16 Beautifully Ordinary

I was walking downtown getting some exercise and running a few errands and came across this little sprig of rosemary in a pot in front of a store.

I love how rosemary is so ordinary, but when its little blue flowers erupt, it is quite beautiful too. Both of the rosemary in our yard are in shadier spots so we don't always get blooms on the ones we have.

I was able to get a few pics during my trek but mostly was enjoying the warm weather, sunshine and spots of spring, springing...maybe I will be able to post more from this walk.

I took this picture in the afternoon enjoying the sun with my Fuji Finepix f50, no flash but macro enabled. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Last Year on In My Words...Chicken Soup

POTD Day 15 Evening

Well, I was volunteering tonight, but I don't have any pictures of that, however I did pull this off the traffic cams for the accident I was stuck in for 20 mins. If you look on the left side, you can see the backup...I was in there. I was on my way to the volunteer gig.

Never did hear on the news what happened or if the people involved were okay, but I did watch 3 state troopers, a EMS supervisor, an ambulance, and a fire truck all go down the shoulder while we were waiting, so I assume someone got hurt. I also noticed that there were three smashed up cars, and 1 Budget truck. There was also a semi truck but I don't it was anything, but a witness to the accident.

Fortunately the wait wasn't longer and I did get where I needed to be with time to spare.

I didn't take this picture, but I did edit it in GIMP 2.6 for privacy and to add the fuzzy border.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Car Crash (my accident in Japan)

POTD Day 14 Care

This is one way I care for our computer systems and the memories we want to keep that are stored digitally.  I highly recommend a regular back up schedule for everyone. I probably go a bit overboard on ours but since all of our backups are on mechanical drives, I feel that doubling up might be prudent.

So because I use the laptop the most and that is where I process all new images, I do the following: an auto Windows update of all the data and image files onto an external harddrive, 2 manual copies on external different harddrives of all the same files, 1 manual copy of all the images/videos on another external hardrive. I do the same thing with the PC except not as a frequently because the PC data and images are not changed much.

I used to burn DVDs for backup, but it just seemed like I was going through tons of DVDs and the externals are portable and pretty easy to use.

I took this picture as a snip of my screen while in the backup/restore area of the control panel on my laptop. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 to add the fuzzy border.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...PC Rebuild Part Two

POTD Day 13 Fresh

I am not sure what kind of tree or bush this picture is from, but I thought the blooms were pretty.

I was in the park doing a 2 mile route that I have for exercise while running errands downtown. I stopped to take lots of pictures of all the spring blooming around.

Everything felt very fresh to me. Today the sky is cloudy again but it isn't supposed to last. We need the rain so if it were to rain, that would be nice for the vegetation and our water reservoirs.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 in nice afternoon light. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light, and then added the fuzzy border.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Ikebana #2 Basic Upright

POTD Day 12 Partial

Here is a one of the hostas we have around the house, and it is already coming back up, but only partially at this point.

I love hostas, got hooked on them when we lived in WA and owned our first house...now we have two in big pots on our backyard, and we have 5 more in gallon containers that need to go in the ground on the shady side of the house. (And they all survived the winter!!).

This one hosta in particular gets some good spring sun right now so I think that is why it is higher than the others at this point.

I am excited to see some stuff sprouting already, gives me hope that the winter didn't kill everything, but it also makes me a little bit stressed because we have so much to do before it all gets out of hand...lots of weeding to do!!

I took this picture in the afternoon light on our back porch with my Fuji Finepix f50. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and to add the fuzzy border.
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Six Years Ago on In My Words...Repotting

POTD Day 11 Something Good

This is the second baby blanket I am making this spring. This niece is due in late spring so I started her blanket after the one I made for my niece that is due in April. She is having a boy so this blanket has more blues than the other one did (which you can see progress shots of that one here and here).

I am using a granny square stitch but instead of doing squares, I am doing rows with it. I have been varying the width of the rows to keep it fun and non-symetrical. The navy blue is the "field" color so it is in between each color (and set at 3 rows) and it is also at the top and bottom and will be the color that I border the entire thing with.

I really love how this one is coming out...super fun (once you get past the first starting rows) and fast. I might be making one of the same stitch but different colors for my sister soon.

I took this picture in our living room with my Fuji Finepix f50 with the macro enabled but no flash. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Nine Years Ago on In My Words...Sharp Items

POTD Day 10 Far Away

This is a picture of Lake Elsinore from up on the hills above the city. One of our cousins from this area was married last summer and we went down for the occasion and did some sight seeing as well.

My SIL and I took this drive up the Ortega Hwy over the hills to meet my MIL down near San Diego and we stopped at this view point to take some shots. So not only is the lake Far Away in the image but the location overall is Far Away from us since we live a long distance from there.

The trip as a whole was really great, we had great weather, and visits will all the family. Couldn't have asked for a better occasion!

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Eight Years Ago on In My Words...In Other News

POTD Day 9 10am

This is what I was doing at 10am this morning. And of course, today is the first day of the standard time, so I am feeling a bit tired since I stayed up too late reading and then got up at regular time on the clock which is an hour earlier than it would have been yesterday.

Anyhow, this picture is a slide I built this morning to diagram the vegetation we have planted in the main front bed in our yard. I decided last spring that I wanted to put mostly perennials in that bed so that it would not be as much work each year. I will put some annuals in the gaps but for the most part, with a little weeding, it is pretty low maintenance.

Last year, it took me a few days of weeding to get all three of those beds cleaned out and then I planted the perennials, and mulched them. This year, I was able to weed all three beds in about 2 hours and most of the perennials are already blooming so it is nice spring bed with little work. I will probably put some more mulch down just to keep the soil nice and moist once it stops raining and we have to turn on the sprinklers.

I have a binder for the house that I track paint colors, landscaping, appliances, etc, and these slides from Powerpoint will go in it with the tags from the plants on the back so we can see the information at a glance.

I got this image as a export from Powerpoint as a jpeg and then added the fuzzy border in GIMP 2.6.
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Eight Years Ago on In My Words...Final Draft (another landscaping project)

POTD Day 8 In The Corner

I started this one out with a boring picture of our recycle bins sitting in the corner of the dining room, but then I was out driving doing errands and took the back roads home and saw these awesome corners and couldn't help myself.

So this one is obviously near a lot of orchard farms and I loved the lines. The leaves aren't back on the trees yet, but their rows are still very obvious.

There was a red tail hawk at the top of the electric lines looking for something to eat, and he took off right after I took the picture and he was so huge. You can see him in the pic of you look closely.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash around lunchtime. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Seven Years Ago on In My Words...Dead Gecko Movement

POTD Day 7 Fly

One thing about spring at the Grange is that the chicks some in!! They are kept in two huge metal tins and you can hear their little chirps from the door when you walk in.

Obviously they will not be flyers but they are still cute litle birds and totally fit this word for me today! I could sit and watch them for hours, but I am sure the crew at the Grange would not appreciate that.

I found a couple that were falling asleep while they were standing and then would wake up when one of the others bumped in them. It was so cute!! These guys were just a bit older than newborns because you could already see some of their regular chicken feathers coming in.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and added the fuzzy border. The pens had these reddish warm lights in them so that is why the color is a little bit off.
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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Observations

POTD Day 6 Chair

Not really a chair, but definitely a spot to sit and one used a lot since it is nice to be in front of the fire.

I am not a huge fan of the tile that was used but it is the same tile that is in the kitchen on the counters and backsplash...so I am hoping that someday when we replace the kitchen counters, I'll get to knock this stuff out. If not, it won't kill me either, but it would be nice. Also not a huge fan of the brass around the fireplace and on the glass doors but thinking of maybe spray painting it flat high heat black...as you can see, the to do list of home improvement never ends...LOL

I took this picture in our livingroom with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light, and added the fuzzy border.
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Nine Years Ago on In My Words...Kick Ass Lightening

POTD Day 5 Something Beginning With I

My word is Ingenuity...or at least I hope it is. We have kind of lumpy grass in our front yard. Part of this is due to lack of maintenance by our renters, but also due to the slope of our yard and the difficulty in watering this poses.

Anyhow, on the project for this spring is reseeding a few spots in the yard. We have the little tool to turn up the dirt a bit before putting down some seed and then putting some soil over it. Our past experience with seeding before always involves figuring out ways to deter the birds from eating all the seed before it has a chance to germinate.

So I thought I would put these whirlies in the yard near the seeding to see if perhaps the motion would keep the birds at bay a bit...fingers crossed. I also picked up two to hang from the plum tree but I won't be putting that in until I prune that tree down a bit since they will just get in the way. I am sure the neighbors will be confused as to why we are "decorating" for Easter so early...LOL.

Fingers crossed that this works since they were only a dollar each at the Dollar Tree, but I am prepared to get another plastic Owl if necessary. We used the plastic Owl technique before and it seemed to work but this would be much more economical.
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Last Year on In My Words...Purple Plums Abound

POTD Day 4 On My Mind

This is a beautiful blossom on the Purple Plum tree in our front yard.

Last year, we had so many plums on that tree that we actually lost a large branch, so I have a plan to not only thin the tree a bit, but also to knock out some of the blossoms or pick some of the unripe plums before they can become a problem. Last year's bounty was a bit of an abnomality but I don't want to have to worry about it later. Working on this tree has been on my mind a lot the last few days because I can see the new blossoms from our bedroom window and know I need to get to it.

The blossoms are so pretty and it reminds me of the cherry blossoms in Japan...this would be the time for the Cherry Blossom Festival in Nago.

I took this picture on a cloudy day in our front yard with my Fuji Finepix f50, no flash but macro enabled. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Kimono Adventure

POTD Day 3 My Name Is

Gracie Ray...well, it isn't my name but it is the name of my soon to be born great niece. I don't use my real name on the web so I had to make a executive decision for this particular photoday, and I thought that this might be a nice compromise.

I found this cute little dress for her today and am sending it in a box with the blanket I crocheted for her along with some other small outfits I picked up.

I worked on the blanket for a few weeks and when I got it in the box, I realized I had some extra room, so I thought adding a few little things would be fun.

I took this picture in our livingroom on the floor with my Fuji Finepix f50, no flash. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Seven Years Ago on In My Words...Open And Moving

POTD Day 2 Something Borrowed

This is, but one example of the bikes that are available for use by anyone while on Google's campus. I have only been to the Moutain View campus but I imagine they have bikes like these on all their campuses of decent size.

As visitors, we of course were enamored with them....they are just so cute. We were even able to ride them (although I didn't) if we wanted. I think it is pretty cool that the promote the use of bicycles and public transit like they do (they have a shuttle system that brings workers in from the local cities so they don't all have to commute in cars everyday). I like to see big businesses taking responsibility for helping our environment.

I took this pic with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited it in GIMP with cropping, light and color and then added a fuzzy border.
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Last year on In My Words...Red Skies At Night

POTD Day 1 Yellow

A little bit of spring making its appearance early. Sadly, I am hoping for more cold weather, so we don't have a really bad bug season, and if we could get more snow, that would even be better. Those wishes don't overtake the fact that seeing the spring flowers make their way out of the ground is still nice.

These guys are at the top of one of our front flower beds. And they were pushing up a while back...I hope we don't get frosty weather while they are in bloom because I would be sad to see them wilt too soon.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited in  GIMP 2.6 for color, light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Ikebana Lesson #1