Out 'n about

Jon and I went for a hike on a hill near our house last week. Here is the view from about a third of the way up the mesa. We didn't quite make it to the top, but got up about 2/3's of the way. You can see our neighbor's house with the green roof easily; our house is up and to the right of his - smack dab in the center of the photo hiding behind the trees. On the far left is Crescent Butte, the far horizon is called the Kaibab Plateau (means mountain lying down), and Johnson Wash zig zags on the right.

We came across hundreds of potsherds and an old ruin. Here is my favorite piece of pottery.

Jon making his way up.

Curly Yucca

Photo editing is fun! but also a slippery slope of doom...

Yesterday, I finally started utilizing my photo editing software. It is nothing fancy like Photoshop; it is called Picture It and is produced by Microsoft. It does some neat-o things though. Here is a picture of a hay rake down on my parents' farm:

I thought this picture in and of itself was tre cool. Then, I found out about these effects our software does, like putting the picture in negative form, and then completely altering the color and saturation. Mmmmm, watermelon!

And then, a little bit of neon edging:

Now my original doesn't seem nearly as spectacular when compared with the other two.

Is this a reflection on society? There are so many opportunities to make everything bigger, better, faster, more. It's no wonder we always feel like we have to "keep up with the Joneses." I guess I got a little blinded by all the fancy things my computer could do. Maybe I will stick to some straight-outta-the-camera shots for a while.

In the car...

I don't listen to the radio in my car. It is a habit I picked up from Jon. Radio stations are too annoying - they play the same stuff, and have the same (loud) commercials, blah, blah, blah. So, I think. Random thoughts. Today I thought about spelling and words. OOOOHHH, fascinating I know. You can be excused now if you think you might just pee yourself with excitement. But, that's what I do. I thought about how I am really starting to like the author Gregory Maguire, you know, he's the guy that wrote Wicked, The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, and how he uses such fancy vocabulary I have to read his books with a dictionary. It's been a long time since I've needed to do that. Anyhoo, I also somehow thought about phonetic spelling, and how come phonetic is not a word you can really spell phonetically? Fuh-ne-tik. That's how it should be spelled right? Isn't that what phonetic means, that you spell something how it sounds?

Also, I have become very attuned to the particular whines, wheezes and purrs my truck makes. Which is a good thing cause then I'll know when something is off with it, but it's a bad thing too, cause then I think I hypocondriatize my truck. (yep, just made that word up - what's up now Gregory Maguire?)

So, what do you do while driving? I mean besides the obvious, like actually driving, watching out for snow birds, real birds, other traffic, deer that hide and wait until you are right next to them then JUMP OUT to surprise you. Are you a radio listener? Or more high-falutin with your iPod/mp3 player? Silence like me?

Ode to a Goat

OFFICE ACCESSORIES ARE NOT FOR USE ON FRIENDS

We stapled my one goat friend.

3 staples

Left ear

No lidocaine.

No sedation.

Peeling apart the day old healing

Only to squirt some cleansing fire in it

And then, to STAPLE it closed again.

Jordan, your bleats were like staples in

my own heart.

You are my best goat friend and were brave in a way only a ruminant can be.