Wow... it's been eons since I actually posted anything of any substance here.

Well.... don't get your hopes up, 'cuz this is just a bunch of fluff too. :p

But, I figured I'd run through some random goings on to update those few loyal passers by who still wander by here on what's new in my world.

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Work has been craaaaazy lately.

I had one fellow working in my area who was very slow. I had hoped he'd pick up the pace with time, but it wasn't happening. Then he went and got in a motorcycle accident, and was looking at a months recovery time... so, I had to replace him.

We didn't have anyone lined up to bring on board, so for a week and a half I was doing that job, as well as trying to not let my own work pile up too much.

That combined with a couple 'clients' in my area who were being complete knobs about various things... and it resulted in me being the MOST stressed out I have ever been in my life.

I'd worry about work when I got home.

I'd worry about work when I went to bed.

I'd worry about work when I woke up.

Hell, I'd worry about work when I was at work.

My usual little tricks to ease my stress simply weren't working, at all.

It sucked... big time. I think I increased my grey hair by at least 15%, and I was all but sure I was going to develop an ulcer.

Eventually, we found a replacement for the seasonal position, and after I spent a couple days with him, he seems to be doing well, so I'm back on board with that.

And the things the jack ass clients were bitching and moaning about have mostly been taken care of.

So my stress level has, thankfully, eased off... I can't say I'm back to baseline on that front, but I'm at least getting there.

Sometimes I truly do hate my work.

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Lisa is doing great. Her baby bump is coming along nicely, and the little spud is getting more an more active all the time... kicking and punching. Feeling the baby move in Lisa's tummy for the first time was cool, and the other day I was lucky enough to be looking when the baby gave a good punch and saw Lisa's tummy jump. :)

Awesome.

Lisa's counting the days until she can start her maternity leave (end of August).

It will take some adjustments on our part to cope with the reduced income, but we've budgeted things out fairly conservatively, and it looks like we'll be in reasonable shape (assuming nothing catastrophic happens).

We've slowly been getting the baby room switched over from spare bedroom/office to baby room.

Most of the extraneous stuff has been taken out and we're organizing things.

We've got a used crib on the way (which is coming from friends of my sister, and my dad paid for).

We've been given a lot of baby toys and various other odds and ends.

We bought a car seat and baby stroller.

Lisa's been thrift store shopping and have gotten a small collection of baby clothes.

We're getting there. :)

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Our kitty, Hunter, is still alive and kicking. After his visit to the vet where things were all doom and gloom, I was convinced that Hunter's days were numbered. But, many weeks later, he still is (at least outwardly) as healthy as ever.

In fact, he seems to have a bit MORE energy now than he used to.

We have a big 2-story cat climber thing, and Hunter never used to get to the top level. Well, lately he's been getting up there. He takes a big run at it and hops & skips his way to the top and loves to lay there looking all proud and smug.

So, I dunno what's going on inside his kitty body... but as I said, outwardly, he's doing great.

We took him to a pet spa thing alst weekend, where for about $25 they cleaned him up, trimmed his claws, trimmed his hair, washed him, cleaned out the hair around his bum (yuck!) etc.

Retarded thing is... even after all that, he still sheds like there's no tomorrow.

I swear, he's a hair factory.

Seriously... I can take a fine tooth comb to him, and brush a single patch of hair over and over and over... for however long... 5 minutes... 10 minutes... whatever. And with each and every brush stroke, there is STILL hair coming out.

I bet if I looked closely, I'd see hair sprouting on him.

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Hope to go see Wall-E this weekend. It looks to be a very fun movie.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney...ney/walle/

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I haven't had my neurologist appointment yet. My doctor said I should here from them in one or two weeks... it's now been two weeks. If I don't hear from them soon, I'll have to call my doctor up and make sure I haven't fallen through the cracks, so to speak.

That said, I haven't had any health issues since my blackout.

But... I'm sure all of that was/is adding to my stress level to a degree.

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Other than that, it's all just same ol' same ol'.

All is well, for the most part.

And despite my general lack of commenting on other peoples blogs, rest assured, I have been reading. :)

Talk to you folks later.

And now, for something completely different... inspired by an article in a Photoshop magazine I was flipping through at Chapters today... which gave me an excuse to go back and play around with an old image of Lisa.

Let me know whatcha think.


(Click the image for a larger view)






Kinda... out there, eh? lol

I'm a day later than I meant to be on this, I've just had a busy few days.

But, I do have a photo to share. I took this photo from our back balcony a few days ago.

Actually, the photo is the result of 3 individual photos taken in rapid succession, one at a set exposure, one a stop under-exposed, and one a stop over-exposed.

I then went to town on some selective enhancements in Photoshop...

I stacked the 3 images in seperate layers and selectively masked out certain parts of each layer.

I did some selective curves adjustments, some selective sharpening and softening, some selective Shadow/Highlight adjustments.

A touch of Nik Sunshine filter was added, and a bit of "Painting with Light" , and the result is as you see here. The final image is made up of 13 layers in Photoshop >_< )

As always, click the pic to see a larger view, and comment/critiques are welcome.