A New Fish Pond

After looking around and a long deliberation, I've decided I needed a new Fish Pond. So please update your links, bookmarks, and/or feeds and visit me at...

http://www.fishwithsticks.wordpress.com

Lynda the Guppy

aka The Fish With Sticks

A Love Affair with Photoshop

I've recently acquired a copy of Photoshop. I. Love. It. I've become hooked on Pioneer Woman's blog, and she posts some really amazing pictures. She periodically posts How-To-Photoshop posts that tell you how to make your photos look like hers. So I've been playing around and using her tips as a starting point, and have been editing some of my photos.

I took some of my travel photos and used some Photoshop tricks and here's what I came up with. First will be the Straight out of the Camera shot, followed by the same photo, but edited.

As you can see, I went for subtlety for some, and just went wild for others. Either way, it was just plain fun.

I love this program.

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Walking for a Cause

Once again, my mom, aunt, friend, and I all participated in the Revlon Run/Walk today. It took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Colliseum, and I volunteered as a finish line timer. And just like last year, it was the most inspiring, amazing, incredible (and FUN!) day.

Last week I went to the Volunteer meeting to pick up my t-shirt and get my team assignment.

When I walked in the stadium, it looked pretty empty...

Unlike Race Day...




There were tables of medals...







And an army of people to hand them out...




The Olympic Torch was lit...




There were volunteers handing out Survivor Roses...




The runners start arriving...




And two hours later, the walkers are still pouring in...




And the Go-Gos were there!

There were teams with great t-shirts that made me laugh, like “Saving Second Base” and “Save the Ta-Tas";

There was a little girl who was pushed the whole way to the stadium in a wheelchair...and then was helped by her mother to walk to the finish line under her own steam;

There were women, men, kids with signs saying they walked for family, friends, etc. who had fought and survived...and wonderful people who walked for those who had fought and lost the battle;

There were women who were singing along to the Go-Gos at the top of their lungs...just like I was. And possibly a boogie or two;

There was a group of three women...one was a sister, one was a daughter, and one was a niece walking for their sister/mother/aunt who had lost her battle against cancer the day before;

There was a woman who came through my lane who looked like every single step was a struggle. She was exhausted and still she looked at me, sighed with relief, gave me the biggest smile I’d ever seen and said “I made it.” She was a survivor of two months.

The Revlon Run/Walk is always such an emotional day for me. It’s the most amazing, powerful, heartbreaking, and inspiring event. You cannot comprehend the immense feeling of pride to be a human being that day in that stadium. And as a volunteer, it feels so wonderful to help support all these amazing women and their families. I spent most of the day laughing through my tears, and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

In fact, I’ll do it all again May 9, 2009.

Who wants to join me?

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish with Sticks

Twenty-Three

Today would have been Greg’s 23rd birthday. It is so obscene to me that it’s his birthday, and while he should be turning 23, instead he will eternally be 22. It’s been six months since we lost him and it feels like forever…and sometimes it feels like yesterday. One of the last times I saw him was one year ago today. I was in Phoenix working and he drove into town to pick up something for his bike. I took him to lunch next door and we sat and talked for well over an hour. I’m glad he got to see SOME family on his birthday…even if it was just me.

I knew I wanted to post something here to remember this day, and I’ve been considering how best to do that for the better part of the last month. I can’t tell you how many times I started this post only to send it off to the recycle bin. So, here goes.

In the spirit of the way Greg lived his life, instead of looking at all the ways in which we miss him, here is a list of 23 things I love(d) about Greg…

1. He would talk so fast his words would practically trip over themselves.
2. Checking an incoming text messages on my cell phone and seeing him in his blue hair.
3. His crazy t-shirts.
4. His ability to get away with darn near anything!
5. His pointy chin.
6. He was almost always laughing about something.
7. He had more energy than the rest of the family combined.
8. His brilliant mind.
9. His outgoing voicemail message. Even now it makes me laugh. It was so Greg.
10. His absolute enthusiasm for anything he enjoyed and his willingness to explain it in terms that wouldn’t make people’s (my) head explode.
11. His sense of the absurd and willingness to be silly. And allow photographic evidence.
12. His ability to take really great self portraits.
13. Getting an instant message from him one day saying “I need help translating some Latin and I thought of you.”
14. His willingness to take off on an adventure, like traveling to Europe for school, or Hawaii to sky dive.
15. His skill at flipping off a camera…A skill equaled only by his father and siblings.
16. His appreciation of and love for his family and friends.
17. His beautiful eyes.
18. His stupid, silly, groan-inducing jokes.
19. His open mind.
20. An innate curiosity about how things worked.
21. His sense of humor about himself and willingness to laugh at himself.
22. His love of all kinds of music (Except country!)
23. His amazing heart.

Happy birthday, Gregger. You are loved and you are missed every single day.

Love, Cousin Lynda

aka Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

It's My Party and I'll Frog if I Want To...

Happy Birthday to Me!!!!

On Friday at work, my office gave me those beautiful flowers as well as a lovely card. And then the cake debacle. LOLOL I am hideously allergic to nuts. I am "Can't Eat Them Or I'll Die" allergic. So the office manager says to me after I've blown out my candles that she had the HARDEST TIME finding me something becuase all the cakes at the bakery had nuts! So, she says proudly, I got this lemon meringue tart.

I laugh until I can't breathe. No one else gets the joke until I say...

I guess this is the wrong time to tell you I'm also allergic to lemon?

Poor thing. LOL But it was pretty damn funny.

After that, my birthday weekend was a bit hectic. On Friday there was a gathering of pals at The Blue Room in Burbank. It was fun, but I knew so few people there and couldn't drink, since I was driving, that I ended up only swapping Christmas gifts with TJ and then heading home.

Saturday was nuts. I ran around like mad trying to get everything done (and I did!) before my office Christmas Party on Saturday night. Oh, BOY. I'd tell you all about it, but I think everyone else would come after me. Let's just say a lot of alcohol was consumed and leave it at that.

As you can tell, my attempt at NaBloWriMo was pretty much a failure in a spectacular way. *sigh* Ah, well. It was just something silly to do (or not). My cousin and I are working on projects for the family for Christmas, and we've been putting in a LOT of hours. And there will be more yet to come, as I still have work to do. And hopefully her Macs will behave. But 2/3 of the gift have been completed, so now it's all on me. Yeah, no pressure there.

In the meantime, my poor cousin. She's been wanting a curly scarf for ages. Remember this one? I cast on back in...um...February?

Well, it seems there's been an accident. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I just got Fed. Up. With. This. Pattern. So I give you...Pink Alpaca Ramen...

She'll still get a curly scarf (eventually), but not this pattern. I'll have to play with a few to see what I like. In the meantime, here it sits...patiently waiting for me to find a use. Any suggestions?

Off to argue more with Flickr.

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish with Sticks

Gauge is a Filthy Stinking Liar

But you already knew that. Apparently, however, I'm a bit slow, because I was honestly surprised by these two situations.

First are the Harry Potter Bookscarves out of the Charmed Knits book. This is the same pattern, same yarn, same needles for all bookscarves. I even made the exact same pattern modifications in every single one.

Here are the bottoms all lined up nice and neat on a piece of graph paper...


And here are the tops of those same bookscarves.

WTF????

Next up: Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket. I started with Cascade 220 Superwash on size 7 needles.

But I decided the fabric was too tight (especially for Los Angeles) and went up two needle sizes to a size 9. The fabric was much more relaxed and more what I was looking for in a sweater. But here's the catch.

The stitch per inch count was almost exactly the same. I knew you all wouldn't believe me (heck, I don't believe me!) so here's photographic evidence.

Size 7

Size 9

Like I said...A filthy stinking liar.

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks

Spoooooooooky!

I know I'm a little late for Halloween. Deal. LOL

The Office of the Building here at Lawyer, Lawyer, & Lawyer decorate for Halloween in a most unusual way.

Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:


I love it! Spooky Elevator!!!

Happy (Belated!) Halloween!!!

Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish with Sticks