Cute as a Button

As I walked by our "guest" room the other day something caught my eye. I should explain that our "guest" room has become the "Saffron" room as it is filled with babysitting paraphernalia and Grandma supplies. Anyway, there nestled in the playpen/portable crib sat the tiniest pair of patent leather (probably plastic) shoes you've ever seen. Seems that Grandma found these little "shinies" and couldn't resist the thought of slapping those babies on the littlest Baby Blume. Easter is coming up in a few days and Saffie is dropping in for a visit. Well that little unsuspecting kid is gonna get those shiny shoes shoved on her little feet. Little does she realize that "Patent Leather Shoes Reflect Up" although at six months old it hardly makes a difference. A peek at a diaper is far from exotic. I was so fascinated by these teeny scuffs that I had to try to photograph them. Remember, I grew up in Catholic schools where any girl that wore patent leather shoes was dragged off by Sister Superior (most likely by the ear) only to return in stocking feet. I feared that word might get out that I was harboring a pair of "Satan" shoes right here in my home and only two blocks from the Catholic Church not to mention the fact that I was blatantly shooting patent leather porn. Would the good Father from St. Marys be heading down the street to perform an exorcism? And this guy is tough. Remember he's the one who is openly a Bear fan in the middle of Packer country. The main thing those little shoes taught me was how inadequate a photographer I really am. Patent leather shoes not only reflect up but but down, left, right, north, south, east and west as well. Or not at all if they decide not to. So after more than a hundred shots and a lot of PhotoShopping the shot above is the closet thing that I have to show off the cutest little shiny shoes around. Maybe Sunday, once they're installed on Saffie, we'll get some proper, cute, shots. After all there will be a lot of other people with cameras taking their best shots. It has taken me three days to finish up this post and I already have the next one ready to go so I guess we'll just post this and move on. By the way, I kept on shooting and finally got a fairly decent shot of those "Shiny Shoes".

Blog Clog

I guess it's been more than a week since my last post. I don't have a reasonable reason for not posting except all of my great "Blogworthy" ideas took off for Spring Break. Sure we took a quick trip to Chicago to visit my mom, daughter Elaine and my new Grandnephew Gavin, and we got together with Derek, Jeanna and Saffron a few times, and Elaine and grandaughters Catherine and Elizabeth ventured into Wisconsin to see Saffron and family, and Jo and I drove down The River to Savannah Illinois for a picnic at The Palisades. Just nothing overly Blogable. In Mother Nature's world it's a time of change. Things are shifting around. Eagles heading farther north, Vultures taking over their "hunting grounds". The big migrations haven't gotten this far up the river yet. Although I did see a small flock of Pelicans a couple of days ago and the Blue Herons are nesting (at least down Chicago way). And I did manage to get a few photos of them while driving back from Chicago two weekends ago. The biggest event (actually there are two) was that I discovered that by reading the instruction book for my camera, I found out how to increase my zoom to 48x. Now all I have to do is find out how to hold the camera still long enough to get a sharp image. Big event 2 is that I bought a film/transparancey scanner. This means that when I dig out my old negatives and slides I can start scanning them and bore you to death with thousands of old pictures. Wow a whole new supply of stuff that I can make up lies about. For now I only have a couple of shots of "Heron Town" on the AT&T campus outside Chicago.

These were taken before my giant zoom discovery.
Next time you'll be able to read the logos on these guys caps

Damn Kids!!!

Recently Microsoft has been running TV ads featuring little kids doing wonderful things with their new photo program. And these are really smart a_ _ kids, bragging about how clever they are AND how young they are. I've been struggling with my "old" version of PhotoShop (the original program came to me on a 78 rpm record) for more years than these kids have been alive. I'd like to see those little smarties walk barefoot, uphill, in 12 foot deep snow for seventy two miles just to get to the outhouse. Well I'm not giving in to these miniature manipulators without a fight. I've put together a few before and after examples that I'd like to see those keyboard krawlers equal.

Try this short fingers!

Before

After

Before

After

And, top this one, you little creeps!

Before
After

3.14159265358979323846…

Tomorrow = March 14 = 3.14 = π.

No matter what you call it, it's PIE day! This is great. Two pie days in one year. I'd really prefer about 365 pie days a year. You may recall (you should have it circled on your calender) January 23rd is officially "National Pie Day" but to the mathemaniacs out there March 14th takes the honor. No matter how you slice it, (preferably in very large slabs) every day is a better day when there's a pie cooling in the kitchen, or in a restaurant, or in the bakery, or at a grocery store or even (although they don't make very good pies) at WalMart. In short, there's no excuse not to celebrate Pie Day either mathematically or gastronomically. Now get out there bake, buy or steal a big piece of pie. Start today! You never know when the bottom may fall out of the pie market.

Here's a reminder of how Sally and Uncas

celebrated back in January

All Done!!!

Mission accomplished. Operation "Kitchen Project" (code named KP) has been completed. Jo and I added the final touches Saturday carefully placing an edited down version of our collection of tins atop the cabinets. It took great restraint but we managed cut back the number of treasures (junk) we had on display here there and almost everywhere in the "old" kitchen. For some reason I didn't have the foresight to take any "before" pictures. One I took at the "2008 Cookie Baking Day" will have to suffice. So, let's let the pictures do their thousand words job...

I used a picture with a lot of clutter
so that the revise will look even better

Finally Jo and I get to sit down, relax
and watch that new fangled HDTV

How Big is Big?

I saw an ad recently for Kelloggs Jumbo Multi-Grain Krispies. As if the old Snap Krackle and Pop wasn't enough distraction while trying to enjoy a nice quiet breakfast now we've got the little elfs (or is it elves?) on steroids. It might be the fumes from my recent kitchen paint job or just anticipation of the completion of "Project Kitchen" (formerly code named KP) only three valances away, but my mind wandered off to "BIG" cereal land. Now that Kelloggs got the ball (or kernel) rolling will the other breakfast biggies be far behind?

Cheerios big enough for emergencies

Even the snack industry is getting into the act

A full report on "KP" is only a day or two away. And then . . . we'll get back to reporting more exotic "Hystorical Wisconsin" facts and locations.

Hey! Hey! Holy Cow!

CUBS WIN!!!

Wednesday was a great day in the Blume house. I finished painting the kitchen, It was 50 plus degrees out side, and I took a nice leisurely drive to Dubuque as I listened to the first Cub's game of the year. I know it was only a preseason, mean nothing game where players only participate an inning or two, but this is truly THE harbinger of Spring. What fun recognizing the names of returning favorites and trying to figure out who all those other guys are and where did they come from? One of the best things about these early season radio broadcasts is the banter between, the best radio announcers in baseball, Pat Hughes and Ron Santo as they poke fun at Ron's toupee, make up names for the players they're not familiar with and generally kid each other about anything from attire to dining experiences. Even though we're being threatened with some fairly foul weather (rain changing to sleet changing to snow) this afternoon and evening, I'll be mentally basking in the Arizona sunshine while I listen to todays game against the dreaded Brewers. The only hitch is that I don't get reception on the radio inside the house and Major League Baseball blocks out the broadcast on WGN's website. So, in order to enjoy the game I have to either sit out in the cold garage and listen on my old clock radio, ride around aimlessly in the car or (best idea yet) park the car on the lawn next to an open living room window with the volume at full blast. I suppose I may sound a little fanatical about this but, It's February in Wisconsin! Come to think of it, I could sit out on my deck with a portable radio. That would be about the same as Wrigley Field on opening day. (Although the Wind/Chill factor is probably warmer on my deck.) Gotta dig my jersey and cap out of the closet.

"Hey hot dog man!"