Thursday, February 26, 2009

"Black and White"



So this may be a little cliche but I loved how interesting this picture became in black and white. I had taken a couple previous to this in colour but decided to experiment and see what came of it. It was a great campfire to sit around though...whatever the photos!

Camera Model Canon EOS 30D
F Stop f/6.3
Exposure time 1/100 sec
ISO speed ISO-500
Focal Length 71mm


Kate's Mess

Monday, February 23, 2009

The Tale of 5 little Hoppers...

Ok for those of you that are a little squeamish this blog is not for you. I am going to recount the unfortunate yet inevitable demise of 5 little mice.

On the weekend Ed picked up 5 'hoppers' from the pet store. At this point, just let me educate those of you who may not know how feeder mice are classified, how it is done.

Pinkies: These are the little new born mice that do not have fur yet
Fuzzies: These little guys are semi cute because they have fur and usually have their eyes open.
Hoppers: These are the cutest of the feeder mice because they literally look like little pompoms...little round puff balls of fur.
Adults: Well most of you know what these guys look like...and they are not cute.

Ok so now you know that you know what Hoppers are and how really cute they are I can continue my story. Ed picked up the 5 hoppers to feed to our ball python Mondego.

Mouse #1: This little guy had the worst go of it out of the group. Ed decided that our cat Pepper needed a training session on what to do with mouse. He put hopper #1 and Pepper into our bathtub togther. Pepper thought this was a great game and batted, swatted, tossed and pounced on this little guy and when we thought he was going to finish him off, we left the bathroom closing the door behind us. Ed went back 5 minutes later and sure enough the mouse was gone and Pepper happily followed Ed out of the bathroom. About 15 minutes later I was inspired to go clean the bathroom (I wonder why!!!!) I new the second my foot touched the bathmat that the mouse wasn't really gone but by that point it was too late. I felt a lump under my foot (and luckily also under the bathmat) and a split second later heard an audible "crunch". AHHHHHHHHHH Oh I screamed and ran out of the bathroom with shivers running up and down my spine. My sister Meighan was over and she bravely went to investigate....she emerged from the bathroom with a little dead mouse on the cats litter scoop (ironic). Ed decided that the best way to dispose of this little guy was to flush him down the toilet. I actually did not see this next part, thankfully, but aparently Ed flushed, Meighan tipped the mouse in, and as soon as it hit the water it WOKE UP and started frantically swimming....With ONE leg!!!
The swirrling waters were too much for the little guy and as far as we know, he finally died.

Mouse #2 and #3: These two suffered a realitivley quick more traditional death of "Death by Python"

Mouse #4: This guy was either the stupidest or most clever mouse Mondego has ever faced. He jumped up onto Mondego's mid section and just sat there cleaning his little face. Mondego got him all lined up, struck at him and missed! The mouse jumped out of the way just in time. The crazy thing is that Mondego actually bit himself!! We didn't even realized that he had gotten himself until we saw the little pinpricks on blood on his body. In the end Mondego had his revenge but I thought that #4 was pretty plucky.

Mouse #5: Which bring us to Mouse #5. After witnessing everything #1 went through and then of course stepping on him. And after watching #4's clever skemes. Meighan and I decided to mount a rescue effort for Mouse #5. I carefully extracted him from the snake cage and then handed him over to Meighan. Just as the mouse was exchanging hands, Ed came into the room with a look on his face saying..."What are you doing!??!?!"
The mouse took advantage of this moment of distraction and lept from Meighan's hand onto the floor. Ed was hot in pursuit. He chased the mouse into the middle of the living room and then litterally flung himself towards the mouse with his arms raised, ready to strike. At this point I thought Ed was desperate to CATCH the mouse...that was until I saw him start slamming his hand down on top of the little mouse with such force that it actually bounced! On the second slam/bounce the mouse somehow managed to find its feet and scurried under the couch and into the large mound of 'stuff' that we have piled there (Basically the entire contents of Gabe's room we're trying to reno) I laughed and decided to carry on with my day. Ed on the other hand went and put on his head lamp and armed with one of Eliana's cooking pots and lid...went hunting. In the end he caught the little guy and cerimoniously placed him back in Mondego's cage with a "Bon Appite".

After everything that went on with these poor mice I somehow gained respect for Mondego. At least he is good at what he does!!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Mother Dearest....

So after chatting with a friend today I realized that I am not the only mom out there feeling as though I am not even remotely close to being nominated for the "world's greatest mom" award. Some how the fact that I am not alone in this feeling was comforting. I know that I am a good mom in that I love my kids and I really do my best to look after them in every way but some days that just doesn't seem enough.
How is that?!?
I go to bed and wish that I had done more one on one activities or had more patience in the midst of the mess and chaos. I crash into the couch at the end of the day utterly spent and still feel as though I haven't done enough.
I think its that feeling of falling short that I struggle with more than almost any other thing. It humbles me daily and drives me to my knees in desperate prayer because what I want to succeed at most right now is the greatest task set before me - being a mother.

Monday, February 9, 2009

KateIntel 2 GB RAM, Single CPU 00.00GHz

So I haven't written a blog in a little while just because I have been so busy doing absolutely nothing that I didn't really have any inspiration. It has been a blah couple of weeks...not boring just utterly exasperating. I have been OCD-ing about all the things I wanted, no needed, to do (in my house, in my life) so much that I have been unable to start on anything!

Anyone else ever deal with this!?!
My brain has been in overdrive and my feet were burning holes in the carpet from running on the spot.

Thank goodness something kicked into gear, finally, today! I got up and completely dismantled my laundry room, revealing months of random mess that had been stuffed away in there. Other than looking after my kids, that is all I really did today. The rest of my house is a crazy mess now because all the junk ended up in the living room.
But you know what, tonight I am fine. Happy even.
Thank-goodness. I have started.

I think this 'stall' phase before my 'active' phase has to do with my slow processing speed. I am like a computer that might have a great video card so you can play games, and a decent sound card so you can watch movies, but has NO processing power so you are always sitting and waiting for the little hour glass to be done turning over and over...and over.

And then *Poof* suddenly your computer springs to life and starts doing what you asked it to three weeks ago.

Yup I can definitely identify with that.

I think maybe I will see about asking Pentium about getting one of those dual core processors that they keep bragging about..
.