31: Church Ambo

I was one of the readers at mass this morning. It's only the second time I've done it. I'm on the 'C' rotation, so I'm only needed when there are five Sundays in a month, about five times a year. Last year I helped out with the Children's Liturgy of the Word, but I never really connected with that ministry. So when it was time to sign up for this year, I decided to try being a reader, or lector, instead. So far it's been going well. I haven't really been nervous. We have a rehearsal the Wednesday before, so I have a chance to practice at the ambo (the lectern) with the microphone. I still need to speak louder and slower, but I think everyone can understand me! And hopefully my English accent gets people's attention for a moment :)

We're thinking of changing parishes though. We really like our current parish, but it doesn't have a school. So we're applying to the one in the next parish for Kindergarten for Elizabeth. The fee is more for families out of the parish, so if she's accepted we may well start going to mass at that parish instead, so the fees will be lower next year.

30: New Bed Linen

We've had this bed for almost 6 years now. The bottom sheet has started to get holes in it, and the comforter has been ripped up by the cat. So we decided to spend the Macy's gift cards we got for Christmas on a new bed set. I checked everything out for quite a while. The set I really liked was expensive, and didn't include the sheets, just the comforter and shams and extra pillows. There was a nice set on super sale, but we suspected that the thread count would be pretty low at that price. Then hubby had a good idea - get the cheap set, and get a nicer sheet set to go with it. So I got a set of 600 thread count Martha Stewart sheets, and the whole lot came to less than $150. I'm looking forward to sleeping in them tonight!

29: Water Fountain

I was out running some errands today, and I had to visit the sister church in our parish, the Catholic Community of Pleasanton. I haven't been there for ages, so I was delighted to see this fountain outside the church. Although it was midday, the light was good, and I got some really nice shots. This was my favorite. I really like the depth of field.

28: Field Trip to West Coast Gym

My daughter's preschool went on a field trip to a local gym. She had SUCH a good time, and she did really well. They did all kinds of activities from practicing different kinds of jumps on the trampoline, hanging on the monkey bars, and walking on the balance beams. Four different classes went at the same time and cycled through four different stations. At the end they all came together to play with the giant parachute.

Before Edward was born, Elizabeth used to attend The Little Gym every week, and she always had so much fun there. We were so sad when they closed down at the end of 2007.

I took over 200 pictures while we were at the gym today! I had to do a lot of playing with the settings, as it was a tricky place to shoot in. Of course it was indoors with artificial lighting. Some times I couldn't get close enough for the flash to work, so I had to slow down the shutter speed and boost the ISO. Other times the white walls and my daughter's white shirt totally blew out. Fine tuning in Photoshop afterwards took some time, but I'm learning some new techniques from a book I just got, and I ended up with a pretty decent set of shots.

27: Dewy Spiderweb

Shortly after I got up this morning I glanced outside, and noticed a huge spiderweb covered in dew, so I grabbed my camera and headed outside in my jammies! It was beautiful, so I put my macro lens and extension tube on and started shooting. I was frustrated because it was too high up to use my tripod, so it was really hard to get a sharp image. This is one of the best I got.

Before I headed back inside, I noticed that the dried rose head that the web was attached to was covered in a fine later of frost. We don't get a lot of frost where I live in California, so I tried to get a few pictures of that too. I had the same problems getting a sharp image, and was slightly less successful that I was with the web. I was able to make a few barely acceptable images in Photoshop later though.

I guess the moral of the day is, get up earlier more often, and seek out photo opportunities within tripod reach!

26: The Ants are Back

Every now and again we get an ant invasion, usually more in the summer. We had one in the kitchen last week, but my first instinct was to get rid of them, not to photograph them! So when some showed up in my daughter's bedroom, I remembered to get my camera out before the bug spray this time. I experimented with my macro lens and my new extension tube, and this was one of the best images I got. I'm really pleased with how much detail you can see on the ant, especially as they were very tricky to shoot. I couldn't use a tripod as they were moving too fast, which meant I had to use the flash. As a result all my pictures came out quite bright. I was hoping I could fix this in Photoshop, but I wasn't thrilled with the results I got. In retrospect, I think I should have dialed the flash down a stop, and I should have shot in RAW format. Oh well, I'll know for next time (and I know there will be a next time!).

25: Alien Nut Bread

My husband made this. It's nut bread. For some reason this loaf cooked with big holes in it, making it look like some kind of alien landscape! My husband loves to cook, which is great, because I hate to do it! He usually cooks dinner, I contribute once or twice a week with a crock pot (slow cooker) meal or pizza. He's always making cookies or brownies or bread too. Elizabeth likes to help him. She is still off school with this virus or whatever it is. She seems to finally be getting her appetite back though, so I'm hopeful she's on the mend.