Sometimes you miss a day...

I totally missed a day yesterday. So as a reward to my numerous readers I have some before/after shots! haha Also, check out the albums I posted after processing the numerous pics here:(London, Stonehenge, and Windsor). I will post the oxford ones tomorrow. They're ready, I just want to space them out haha...

I need to read into this, I don't know why it over exposes in Aperture Priority mode. Unless the one on the left is the preferred brightness by most. But I like it way better not so bright...

Purposely took it dark(to keep the shutter speed at around 1/30), since I know I can do this at home :)

I don't know why the camera(or the user lol) has a tendency to over expose the shots when in Aperture Priority mode(what we use most)

Before: Notice the nasty cable lines behind them

After: Where did they go?!

Again, nasty cable line:

After: And where did it go?! No photoshop either. The canon software tool has dust delete and stamping tool. That is how I did it.

Sometimes traveling hurts...

...your entire body! I am still sore from the trip. Everything hurts. My left foot just gave out on saturday sometime. I didn't hurt it or anything, just like if the muscle was so overworked, it hurt. Hard to explain, but it hurt to the point of limping. And my arms and shoulders are super sore, but for that I have Sophie to blame. She was super lazy and didn't want to walk anywhere, and was being difficult, so we had to carry her a lot...even taking turns it was too much. She's way too big now to be carried....

So yeah, we didn't blog for 2 days! 1st day, there was difficulties at the hotel lol. It was in a different building than reception, and we didn't ask if there was a key, and we were exhausted and promptly crashed out. Same on the second day, except we just got home late...

More details when we blog about it. And the pics, well, it takes a while to process 500 pics lol

so meanwhile, here is a screenshot of Big Ben, one of the landmarks in London :)

Sometimes you p0wn...

...and it is great! Warcraft 3 ftw!(Frozen Throne)

I am the one and only, VeganPeon! lol

Knights/casters baby! Actually humans are pretty versatile, so that is why I usually play human...so who wants to get p0wnd?! gl n hf!

Sometimes you dust off your Wii remotes...

..to play SNES games on it! haha Mainly because they are simpler games, and I can play them with Sophie.

So I know I talk a lot about RAW files, so I will keep it short. Here, I kinda "cheated" since I know I can drastically increase the brightness of a RAW file, I purposely took it dark, to prevent blur, and then just brightened it in the RAW file editor:

It is dusty, I know...

And just another "plant in the shoe" update. I think we can call the little project a success. I need to start thinking about moving them into the actual garden.

Sometimes you want to see Jupiter...

This is a timelapse taken in 1979 by the Voyager Spacecraft as it approached Jupiter...1 image everyJupiter day(about 10 hours). It is just mesmerizing(and I only use this word because I should reserve the word "awesome" for things like these, but sadly, I don't. Because this truly leaves me in awe...). The black spots that come in and out are shadows of the moons, the bright flashes are the moons.

Jupiter ftw!

A really really cool close up of the storm(the red spot) on Jupiter:

So yeah, I can't wait to get a telescope(again), and look at it again :) For now, binoculars will do on the occasional clear night here since it is almost permanently cloudy....

Sometimes you lose to your daughter...

...at bowling on the wii. See for yourself:

And I was totally trying! Check out her technique:

You know you haven't played Wii in ages when your controller is this dusty:

And SNES Super Mario World ftw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or as Sophie calls it, "Gustavo".

And SNES Donkey Kong Country!! Sophie loves them, it is fun playing with her! :)

Sometimes you return a child car seat...

I had to return the child seat we rented to go to Diss. And I forgot to go in the morning, so I went with Sophie during my work "lunch" which is 3pm here. Apparently, car rental agencies lease car seats for kids out too. And the pleasant part was that since she is 4 now, it was just a booster seat, so easy to carry and use.

Anyway, here is another "plant in the shoe" update:

They are almost outgrowing the boots now!! Time to move them to the garden? I didn't really plan for what to do once the plants get big...

Sometimes you find chips on a Sunday...

The chips shop is usually closed on Sunday, for some reason. And I went grocery shopping today by myself, Geli was feeling lazy, and Sophie was too. Sophie didn't even wan to go to the park! Anyway, on my way out to get groceries, Geli asked me to get some chips on the way back. I told her I couldn't cuz the shop is closed on sundays. But I had a plan...

I went to another one, same chain(I think), so I expected it to be closed, but it wasn't. So I surprised them with chips when I got home.

Then we ate dinner. Chana Massala(probably misspelled that!), an Indian dish with chickpeas, zucchini, tomatoes, and a lot of spices lol and it is fantastic!!!

Photo by Geli :)

Sometimes you go to Diss...

..and it is awesome! We got a ride from a vegan couple we met at the vegan picnic in July(since Diss is 40 miles from here). Diss was a very small town and the BBQ was at one of the other vegan's house, but it was more like a farm.


Anyway, more info to come in the foreigners blog, but for now, enjoy this collage of the day:

Sometimes you get a job you already had....

Since all signs point to us going back to the US within the next couple of months, I talked to my boss about it and I will continue to work my current job, except I will be rehired as a company employee again(I am currently a contractor), so that is pretty cool.

On another quick note, here is today's "plant in the shoe" update:

Sophie really likes it! :D

They're looking about the size of the Wall-E ones, no?

Leafs!!

Oh, and it was wet out since it had just rained, so there was plenty of slugs and snails out, check this slimy one out:

Slug!!

And drops on a leaf, I always like the way they look:

Sometimes people invade your house...

...for 45 minutes. The letting agency called at noon, to say that someone wanted to view the house at 3pm. I told them, if they don't give us enough notice, they can't expect the house to be in pristine condition for showing. But actually, it wasn't that bad, I walked around and picked up the big things.

Anyway, they showed up at 3, and I was in a "meeting", so I couldn't pay attention to what was going on, because I actually had to pay attention to this meeting. The agent kept coming in and saying something, but part because of the accent, part because I was paying attention to the meeting, I couldn't make out what she was saying.

They had a little girl with them, so Sophie quickly decided that she was her friend and they were playing, so I didn't worry about that. But I am not sure why they were here for so long! The guy that was viewing the house kept going outside to use the phone, and then it started pouring, so for all I know, they were just staying here to not get wet. But anyway, it was weird, having strangers "looking" at the house for 45 minutes, when it usually only takes about 5 minutes to walk them around and lie to them about it...

"Plant in the shoe" update:

This is from a couple days ago, it is growing fast!!! If you were wondering what garbanzo plants look like when they sprout, now you know....

Sometimes you make a giant stack of pancakes...

...and it is awesome!

 

Strawberry vanilla pancakes ftw!

Sometimes Mari spams you....

...I am not even kidding! check it out! haha

And these aren't even all of them! lol but yeah Mari, don't ignore us for so long!!

Sometimes you take pics of flowers...

...but first, let me tell you about our "plant in the shoe" project! It is growing well, and fast!! Look:

And here are the flowers pics I took at the castle. I can't help it! I see flowers, I feel this urge to take a picture. I don't particularly like them, I don't think, they just seem to make good subject for pics.

Sometimes you have to share...

...your computer. Geli's computer won't boot, so she used mine today, pretty much all day till now. Neither of us has really taken a long look at it, it won't boot from CD, which is odd, even though we checked the boot order, and even set CD as first. But we haven't tried much more beyond that yet.

Anyway, here is a pic of an old church from yesterday. I took tons of pics today, since Sophie and I went to the castle, but since I didn't have a computer, no time to process them.

And this was at the university:

Humped Zebra? Crossing?! I also have no idea why they have those squiggly lines on the side of the road. They have them on a lot of roads, no idea what they mean....

Sometimes you drive a wheelchair with your face...

...but I am too tired to talk about that right now, so I'll tell you about it later. Instead, here is a pic of what we ate today:

Ethiopian lentil stew with peas, carrots, onions, tomatoes, spinach and a killer combination of aromatic spices + some homemade flat bread.

Also, "plant in the shoe" project is progressing faster than expected!!! The little sprouts are coming out already!!

Sometimes you play monito...

That is what Sophie calls Little Big Planet. It is fun. I just passed it today, I was kinda sad haha

Sophie and "her friends". Sophie is the zebra, or "Marty" as she calls it, because of the Madagascar movie, playing the intro stage, I don't know why!

But, Sophie discovered that other people can just jump into your game. She was sooooo excited! "Daddy! Look! There's another monito!!" Now, she even calls them "my friends" lol. So yeah, she's addicted. We have to constantly ration it, and even ground her because it takes over her! She gets mad and yells, and cries over us telling her that it is time to turn it off...she was grounded for 4 days(because she yelled at Geli 4 times), with no "monito". She took it pretty well, and hasn't done it since, so it worked, she understood why she couldn't play.  And she's pretty good, she can finish stages with the others. In multi-player it is easier for her because if she dies, she just reappears at the next checkpoint. I just don't think the others realize they are playing with a 4 year old! haha

Sometimes you need Vitamin T...

...which is of course Tortillas. Vitamin T is essential! And I have been craving it so so bad lately...There are actually 2 main forms of this vitamin:

Vitamin T1: Corn tortillas!!!
Vitamin T2: Flour tortillas!

And well, they sell some Vitamin T2 here, so here is what I did:

Hummus + spinach + cucumber + tomato + avocado(not shown)

It was awesome, and I forgot to take the pic with the aguacate, which also went in there. But seriously, you need both forms of Vitamin T, and I haven't had Vitamin T1 in ages!!! Waaaay longer that in advisable by any medical professional. The consequences are dire for such severe deficiencies....

Sometimes you use french toothpaste...

...why, you ask? Well, because we bought it in France, and we brought it back (trains ftw! Airport security would have made us throw it away).

We didn't take our toothpaste to France because we thought we couldn't. Anyway, so now we have French toothpaste...